How to Promote your Business

How to Promote your Business

Traditional marketing courses stress the four Ps:

Product The best it can be
Price The best value for what it is
Place Bringing your excellent, right-priced product to customers
Promotion Spreading the word about your business, product, or service

Generally, the fourth P, Promotion, consists of Advertising, Sales Promotion, and Public Relations.
 

In her article, “Attracting New Business on a Shoestring,” Kelley Robertson outlines eight inexpensive marketing strategies:

1. Networking
2. Referrals
3. Writing
4. Newsletters
5. Cold Calling
6. Giving Free Information
7. Offering a Guarantee
8. Advertising.

Number eight, the economics of advertising; however, is questionable, according to
some experts. In the wonderful text, “Marketing Without Advertising,” the authors stress a range of activities from personal recommendations, to 35-word statements telling people what you do, to referrals, to phone manners, to marketing events. This text by Michael Phillips and Salli Rasberry is in its fourth edition and a wealth of information and ideas.

Similarly, the US Chamber of Commerce in its article, “Public Relations Ideas,”
firmly believes that “public relations can leverage advertising and promotion programs”
via press releases, speeches, public service or charitable activities, and special events.

Sharon Dotson, in “Getting PR in Your Town:  Realities to Remember,” outlines how to leverage local media coverage to grow your business.  Her hints include “working smarter to get media coverage, learning to read your newspaper with the eyes of a media pro, and adjusting any negative, self-defeating attitudes you might harbor about coverage in small community newspapers.”

Keys to successful promotion are one or more of the following: a decent business card, a tri-fold brochure, structured word of mouth, referrals, personal recommendations, testimonials, networking, personal marketing, press releases, press conferences, media tours, photos and other visuals, workshops, open houses, web-sites, blogs, newsletters, writings, speeches, civic activities, letters to the editor, sponsorships, and interviews.